Gaffriel 84

He led us away from the ruins towards a sleek black car that sat around back. He’d been waiting for a while for someone to show up. An alarm chirped from keys in his hand.

We told Revik about what had happened. Every word that came from our lips was more painful for him to hear than the last. He gritted his teeth and leaned over the edge of his car, breathing heavily.

“It’s all my fault.” He wheezed. He had a faraway look in his eyes as he thought hard. “I’ll help you find Kiromir. Rolyn will die.”

“He misses you.” Niala’s voice had that sleepy strained quality to it, again. Revik opened the back driver’s side car door and gestured to her. She climbed in without hesitation and almost immediately closed her eyes.

I rubbed over my shoulder anxiously as Revik scrutinized her.

“She’s sick,” I explained.

“I gathered that.” Revik turned back to me as he closed the door and quirked his head to the side.

“You’re a healer, right? Can you help her?” I fought tears as I asked. I didn’t want to lose her.

“Do you know what’s wrong with her?” Revik raised a single brow. He looked like a darker, more sarcastic version of Kiromir, minus the freckles and sun.

“No. She’s just been this way since we escaped—since her molt, really. She’s just been getting worse,” I said.

Revik rubbed at the bridge to his nose. He looked like he wanted to say something but thought better of it. “Yeah. I’ll help. Come on. She just needs to clean out her sinuses.” He waved his hand flippantly, and I followed him. The passenger side seat of the car sank under my weight in a soft hiss of air, the way hot leather does.

“Buckle up, or the damn alarm is going to beep at me the whole way.” Revik put the car into gear, and I scrambled to click the tab into place. It surprised me that the car fit me. Usually, they felt so cramped.

The car didn’t so much as drive as it did glide over the streets. I wondered where we headed for just a minute before we pulled up to the old clinic. Kiromir had used it for storage at some point and hadn’t been there in years. Revik pulled up behind it and put the car into park. I started climbing out of the car by the time Revik pulled Niala out. She hadn’t woken, but he pulled her into his arms with ease. He smelled close enough to Kiromir that it didn’t faze her, I bet.

“Hey, I got her!” I moved to take Niala, and he gave me a warning look.

“If you want me to heal her, you’ll let me do what I need to do.” Revik closed the door with his hip and gestured for me to take the keys from his coat pocket.

“The one with the orange topper on it.” Revik angled his hip to me, and I gingerly pulled his keys out. There were a surprising many of them, and I managed to find the right one after a few flicks. I opened the door for us, and we barged our way in. The place looked somewhat lived in, but only recently. The dust on things hadn’t been entirely disturbed yet. Spiderwebs still hung around.

“I’ve been waiting around here for a while. I usually come visit the barracks during migration, but this year… I wanted to find out what happened to everyone. I guess I know now.” Revik moved about the old office and approached a couch in a small break room. He deposited Niala on it and tossed a thin blanket over her.

“Now, where is it?” Revik wandered around the office as he picked through a few boxes. They seemed relatively new compared to everything else. He opened a few different ones until he found a half dozen small amber bottles. I didn’t recognize the writing on them, but he did. He made his way over to Niala and put his hand behind her head. He tilted her up a bit before popping the cork and running it below her nose a few times. Finally, she sputtered awake and struggled free of him.

“Sutz, what is that!? She glared at Revik wearily.

“Good, now drink. It’ll clear up your fever.” Revik pushed the bottle into her hands and gave me a halfhearted smile.

“What is it?” She sniffed at it and turned her head away.

“Medicine. Now drink.” Revik said firmly and held all of the same austerity in his words as Kiromir did, that bit of Lowak in him—none of the softness, though. There had been, but not anymore.

Niala tilted the bottle back to her lips and let a dark liquid bubble out. She choked it down and retched.

“Good. Now you stay like…at least ten feet away from her for a while.” Revik prodded at my chest, and it seemed reminiscent of Kiromir’s protective nature. “Greentree, pft. If her kind knew you were sniffing around her. Ohhh boy.” Revik shook his head.

“You know her kind?” Despite the insult, I raised my brows with excitement, and I looked over to see Niala’s rapt attention on Revik.

“He spoke my language, Gaff.” She seemed to be beaming.

“Hold on. Greentree, what is your name?” He squinted at me for a moment.

“Gaffriel,” I said, and his expression didn’t improve.

“Good…fucking…creator’s…graces.” Revik’s face twisted in awkward pain. “Yeah, stay the hell away from her. Do you know what your name means in their language?”

“Yeah Yeah, haha, carrot storm.” I wiggled my fingers.

“Yeah, they don’t use that word for carrot. They use it for ‘root’ and also for….” When Revik finally translated it, my stomach sank, and somewhere in a distant land far away, Letti cackled. Niala’s face went bright red.

“You two aren’t bound, right?” Revik thought to ask.

We shook our heads, and he sighed in relief. “I didn’t get your name, child of Kiromir.”

She told him, and he did a double-take. “No, seriously. Your name.” She insisted, but Revik didn’t believe it.

“Niala Samia.” She said quietly. I’d never heard her say her full name like that before. “Do you know any Samias?”

Revik choked a laugh back. “That’s a middle name, not your family name.”

“Your first name is Anael, the measure of a star.” Revik’s smiled, hiding the pain in his voice. “Your middle name is Acerrai, means ‘The poison of.’

Niala wrinkled her nose. Her name certainly beat mine. “Cool.” I meant it.

“So, I don’t even know my family name, then.”

“Lemme see your wings. I might can start there.” Revik watched her closely as she let her wings slip free with practiced caution.

“Your wings hurt?” He seemed pretty concerned.

“No, if I do it too fast, everyone around me lashes.” Her cheeks went pink at the mention, and Revik pursed his lips.

Her wings slid free and spread. Silver and black played over one another in sweet melody over her feathers.

“You could be a half breed, Anael and Acir; no, your wing shape is pure acerrai.” Revik mused as he rubbed over his chin.

“Draw them, and let me see your Ikris.”

Hesitating, I reached out to Revik. “She’s different.” I felt like I needed to warn him, but Niala drew her wings and turned for him before lifting up the back of her shirt. I waited to see his confusion, but he only nodded. He appeared so calm, but I could feel the muscles under his shirt tensing hard.

“Not a half-breed. Let’s find Kiromir, and then I’ll get you to your family, Niala.” Revik seemed confident of something.

“Kiromir is my family,” she insisted.

“Then I shall get you to your blood family, and you can return to Kiromir later. You need your people,” Revik said, pleading a little.

“So, do you know who they might be?” Niala looked hopeful.

“I have no clue who your mother is, but I have a good idea about who sired you, especially with that name. He entered the cycle, but your grandfather is still alive.” Revik looked less than pleased about this. There seemed to be a genuine pain in him as he spoke. Niala, despite being sad, sighed with relief as the color drained from her cheeks.

“Is he a good person? Are the Acir really evil?” Revik laughed. “No, they’re just different.”

“Is it because of the tails?” I put my foot in my mouth on that one, and Niala gave me a scathing look.

“No. Only a few people have those tails. They’re part of her family, specifically seraphs. Her people are just like you, just different in pallor.” Revik handed another one of the bottles to Niala and made her drink more. She looked better by the minute.

“Niala, you rest. Gaffriel and I are going to go get some food for us. My fridge is empty, I’m afraid. You eat yours raw, yes?” Niala looked up in surprise and nodded. “That makes her part easier.” Kiromir had been right about Revik.

“I need to stay with her.” I put my foot down, but Revik had this look that I had to back down from. He grabbed my shoulder and led me out of the back.

“You want me to talk to you and tell you what’s wrong with her, or do you want to stay in there with her and make it worse?” Revik’s tone went calm and placative. I have no idea how I made it worse, but I got into the car with him all the same. I buckled in, and he started the car but didn’t move.

“Are you sick at all?” He toyed with the steering wheel. I shook my head.

“Your fires are compatible, right?” I felt suddenly self-conscious.

“We haven’t tried anything! Just fires and kissing. I promise!” I could feel my face growing bright red.

“Hmm, that likely didn’t help it. She’s got binding sickness.” Revik said it so nonchalantly, but my skin went ice cold. A chill ran down my spine. My stomach went up in knots.

“We haven’t bound!” I had half a mind to take my pants off right there to show him my leg, but he held up a cautioning hand with all the understanding in the world. Then, finally, he wove his calm, and I let it take me over.

“I know this. She’s too young, and you’re just on the brink. Her fires aren’t ready yet, and neither is yours. It’s what she is. Acerrai bind differently than wildling.” He spoke so patiently—paternal, calm. I realized why he became a doctor.

“I shouldn’t have kissed her. We should have stopped chasing fires.” I winced. I should have been happy to hear that we would bind, but I made her sick. Of all the times I felt her trying to get closer at the height of fever, I should have known better, and my face just kept getting redder.

“By any chance, did you two spend a lot of time together growing up?” He asked.

“Yeah. We shared a bedroom until I was eight. I was practically Kiromir’s second kid. My parents didn’t really parent well. Niala’s been like the only stable thing in my life,” I told him.

“And you said it all started after she got her fires?” Revik moved the shifter into reverse and pulled out. He seemed so comfortable with it all, calm about it. He looked so much like Kiromir that I hesitated to admit everything going on.

“She was molting at the same time, so I don’t know where the fever started and ended there. It’s just been getting worse these past few days,” I said.

“She’ll be fine if she takes a few of those a day and you keep your distance. But don’t think it was you melding with her or kissing her that caused this. It’s been set with her since she was young, I’d wager. Acerrai separate their kids when they’re five or six and limit their interactions with the opposite sex to keep this from happening.” Revik shrugged it off.

“So, she’s been… like….” I thought about it, the day she latched onto me and didn’t let go.

“Yep. You two were chosen when you were little. You’re not feeling it yet because your magic isn’t as strong as hers. The Acerrai are just that way.”

I didn’t even notice where the car went. He’d driven in circles around the block for a few minutes, just letting things sink in before he pulled into the trendy weird natural grocer nearby.

“Wait in here, and I’ll come back with food.” He slipped out and ran in, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I still had it in my head that I had done that to her, hurt her, made her fever worse. Revik didn’t seem bothered, but I had to tell Kiromir. I wondered how I would explain it.

“Sorry I made out with Niala so much that she got binding sickness? Sorry, I couldn’t help it; we’ve been predestined since kindergarten? It wasn’t me; it was the creator’s will!” Everything sounded so lame.

I sank down into the seat as Revik returned with a paper bag full of things. He looked down at me in the seat. “You ok?” It felt good to have an adult around, finally, one who knew what to do. I felt my responsibility being lifted.

“Yeah, just figuring out how to tell Kiromir,” I told him.

“Would he have a problem with you? Wildlings don’t know much about interbreeding, and your family makes strong kids.” Revik shrugged before handing me a banana from the bag. My stomach ached with hunger, so I started peeling it.

“No clue if we are compatible like that. Can different kinds of wildlings—”

“Cerraien,” he corrected me.

“Yeah. Can they even have kids?” I asked.

“I did. We’re all the same kind of creature,” Saying that seemed to bring up that pain in his voice again.

“But she’s got the tail!” I wasn’t sure if he remembered that part.

“So does my daughter, and she’s half-caste. Her mother had a tail, so I’m sure it’s fine,” he said, still with the pain.

“So Kiromir is an uncle?” I asked, looking for a reprieve from the conversation.

“No.” Revik said, his response clipped. “She’s not mine anymore.”

I wanted to ask questions, but he seemed to tense up with his aura peaking again.

“There’s so much out there that you don’t know. There’s three other Cerraien, not counting the seraph, but they’re royalty.” He rambled, and I had to stop him for a second.

“Wait, Niala is a seraph, right?” I asked, and Revik looked uncomfortable—as if he’d said too much.

“Yes.”

“So, she’s like, a princess?” I asked, hesitating.

“Hmmm, yeah, I guess. No more than Kiromir and I are princes.”

“Kiromir said if I bound to her, because he adopted her… That I’d have to step up… How does that affect her status? What do I do? Will she be in trouble? Will they take her away from me?” Everything came to me at once.

“Then step up. I’m going to have to take Niala away for a little while. Use that time to become better for her, take a leadership role. If you do well, I’ll back you—creator knows it’s not mine anymore.” Revik tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

“Take her away!?” panic shot through me, and Revik shrugged off my aura.

“Yeah, she needs away from you for a while, and she needs her family. So, she’ll come back or bring you back to her. I’m sure.”

“But what about Kiromir and our flock?” I said, stiffening—serious.

“Honestly, if it’s an issue, there are other heirs. So don’t worry about it.” He circled the block again. “But when we get in, I want you to take one of those tonics, too. I feel like you do not have binding sickness, but maybe you’re having those kinds of thoughts. It’ll help tame it.”

I averted my eyes. I definitely had those kinds of thoughts, and I wasn’t particularly ready for that—emotionally. I wanted the excitement and closeness of it, but not the responsibility or the implications. I wanted to have enough in my coffers to be proud of what I could be for Niala. I wanted her to have a life outside of me for some time. It was a childish thought to take her now. We could wait.

“I wasn’t far off on that, was I?” Revik’s grin made me sink in the seat. “We’ve all been there. Trust me, just keep your fires to yourself for a while. I’ll have a talk with her separately.” He flicked on the turn signal.

“I’ll tell Kiromir.” I conceded, relieved that Niala wouldn’t have to suffer the shame of it.

We pulled into the back lot, and Revik paused. “I’m going to go in and tell her. Give me a few minutes.”

I sat in the car for the longest time as Revik slipped out, food in his arms, closing the door behind him. My blush wouldn’t stop.

“I’ll wait for you,” I whispered to myself, clenching my fists.